A small Swedish contingent, waves its flag at the Mullins Center.
photo by J. Anthony Roberts

With the University of Massachusetts hockey team still looking for its first regular-season win, a cynic would probably dismiss the 5-1 exhibition win over the Under-20 Swedish national team as easy pickings because of the opponent's disadvantage age-wise.

But a closer look at the Swedish roster reveals that there are five players who have already been drafted by National Hockey League teams. And with no disrespect to the current Minutemen intended, that is five more than have already been drafted from UMass, which lost its share to the pros at the end of last season.

Sweden played four games in these parts with Saturday's game the finale. They defeated Harvard 2-1 with first-line center Ludvig Rensfeldt scoring the winning goal. Harvard has played two ECAC games, losing 1-0 to RPI, and beating Union 2-1, so it's not like Harvard was an easy opponent. Improving Merrimack defeated the Swedish team 4-1. Sweden rolled past Division III Williams College 8-2 last Friday night.

"This was the best team we've played," Swedish center Johan Sundstrom said while reviewing the post-game UMass stat sheet that saw him take six shots on goal, two in each period. "They had more skilled players."

First-line left wing Marcus Sorensen was a fourth-round pick (106 overall) by the Ottawa Senators.

Rensfeldt was one of three second-round selections by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 draft.

Goaltender Johan Gustafsson, who stopped 38 UMass shots (one goal was into the empty net), was drafted in the sixth round (159th overall) by the Minnesota Wild. So it's possible that he will someday be a teammate of former Minuteman Casey Wellman.

The Dallas Stars selected defensman John Klingberg in the fifth round (131st overall). He has brother who is an Atlanta Thrashers prospect - Carl.

And left defenseman Petter Granberg just turned 18 on August 27. He was the 116th overall pick in the 2010 draft - by the Toronto Maole Leafs.

Some of these players, like Granberg already have contracts to play in Sweden for the next couple of years, so you may hear about them later.